Month: May 2013

Towering tree
Blog update…?! Oh yeah. I’ve been busy the past few days but first, the past weekend. Bdot went shopping in Pennsylvania for a few days so I was bacheloring it yet again. I usually take advantage of these opportunities by eating poorly and watching bad action/thriller/horror/sci-fi/fantasy movies the wife won’t watch. So this weekend was right on par. I had marginal Chinese and watched a bunch of movies that were marginal at best. Ho-hum. The dog and I did get out for a long hike on the Bruce trail however. Yardwork, housework ho-hum.

The major event however was bdot’s Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal) Monday morning up in Orangeville. Her gallbladder attacks are infrequent, but when they do hit the pain is excruciating. So… she decided to take the bugger out. Most of the women in her family have also had them removed. It was a very long day. The surgery itself was around 2hrs. Apparently bdot is very susceptible to anesthesia as she said she went under in a heart beat. I waited for her in various lobbies. Eventually they rolled her back into the day surgery recovery room. She looked in rough shape, she was very pale and drifting between sleep and awake states. It was pretty clear that the nurses were under some sort of directive to turn the beds over as quickly as possible. But it took bdot quite a while before she felt she could leave. Eventually a nurse and I helped her dress, get her in a wheelchair and wheel her out the door. The staff is nice but it really felt like we were being pushed out the door.

So it had been a few days since bdot’s surgery. She still finds getting up and down painful and eating is a complicated chore. I’m pretty sure it will be at least another week before I expect she could return to work. The laparoscopic surgery is suppose to be less invasive… but she still has some major scars, and instead of one large cut, there are several smaller ones. *shrug* I’ve been Nurse Ratched for a few days now… It is a challenge having to do everything around the house as bdot can’t lift anything or have any exertion. So far I think we are managing. She is showing small improvements every day. Lots of little victories she probably doesn’t want to relate, so I won’t.

The final four teams for this years Cup are curiously the last four Cup winners. Hmmpt. Chicago, LA, Pens and Bruins.

Looking forward to the TFC game with my buddies Saturday night. Should be good times.

New and old Kirk and Spock
Hmm. *That* was a long weekend? It sure seemed to zip by. It’s now a week before Bdot’s surgery to remove her frontal lobe er, gall bladder.

Saturday started early with a badly needed haircut… I don’t mind the Beatles, but I sure don’t care to look like them. After I got home it was a quick turn around to head out for a bunch of stops. The most important stop was for the new chairs for the ‘fireplace’ room. The Elte warehouse was north of Eglinton and Dufferin in a busy area of Toronto I’ve never been in before. We ended up bringing both cars because we figured we would need them. Well, we didn’t. The miraculous Vibe fit both chairs. With that done we moved onto reno research. After looking at a few lighting stores we picked out a foyer light and possibly the dining room light. We are still not in agreement on the ceiling lights. I consider this a pretty big win however as we agreed on no lights before. We booted it home to meet up with my Brother-in-law JP, who came down for the evening since he was bachelor chow for the weekend. I think we beat him there by about 55 seconds. *blink* Anyway… the chairs are unpacked and we think they look great in the space. I wonder if there is a coating on them they makes them invisible to our cats. They haven’t noticed them yet. (Cat owners will know how strange this is) *shrug*

The first order of business once we walked the dogs was food for us humans. We’ve been hyping up Caledon Burger Company to JP for a few days. It has been a few months since we were last there however. We pull into the parking lot… and Caledon Burger Company has been completely rebranded…! The staff is the same but the burgers and menu are not. I mourn the loss of the only good pulled-pork sandwich in the region that I was aware of. We talked with the staff and it seems the beef is still local and of good quality but… there is only beef on the menu. No chicken burger, nothing from the delicious pig. Ho-hum. Also… the burgers are now a long rectangle shape which is served on a round bun… that is a head-scratcher. The burgers are good but when the meal for two people is hitting over $30, for burgers, fries and drinks… I wonder if they’ll survive at that price point. Le sigh.

Now that we were fed we checked the time. We had planned on going to see the late showing of Star Trek: Into Darkness but we had time to make the early show… so we did. I really enjoyed Star Trek: Into Darkness. It was full of action and the new cast (especially Kirk and Spock) had impressive performances. The film was engaging and exciting. It was what I hope to see in an action film. Big effects, quick moving plot and zippy dialogue. I won’t speak specifically about the plot as it is still in theatres. I think it was a solid . I often wish I could film the trailers that play before the movie. I remember there were a lot of cool films coming, but I recall none of their titles. Meh.

After we got home we cracked open a bottle of Wee Heavy Bourbon by Microbrasserie Le Castor. Wee? There is nothing wee about this Scotch Ale that hits at a heavy 11%! The Bourbon/Oak flavour pretty overwhelming. It was tasty… but certainly a sipper. It was a long day by this time and as the booze took hold, everyone faded away to Zzzzland. JP was gone before I got up… he was off home to ride 90km with some of his mates. It was a fun visit, we don’t get to see JP enough.

Sunday was more reno shopping. The exciting ‘range hood’ purchase. Found one. Very exciting. We also looked at more lights and went into a bunch of other ‘home furnishing’ stores. We spotted a few interesting things. The most notable was this. It was very tempting to get it. *snort*

The holiday Monday was spent primarily outside doing yardwork. Bdot worked like a madwoman reseeding the front lawn again while I continued wage war against the weeds in the backyard. It was a crazy hot afternoon. I think it felt like close to 30. It seems any temperature over 25 soaks my soul. I could only handle that sun for about an hour at a time before I’d have to cool down in the shade. Ughh…. So if the backyard doesn’t get any reno love, we are hoping it will at least be tolerable. Onward the reno marches.

The mud in tough mudder
First off, I want to say Happy Mother’s Day to my Mother. Not everyone is lucky to have a mother who is such a wonderful and inspiration person. We’ve had many conversations about many things and her optimism and compassion always rise to the surface. It is inspiring and serves to remind me that I could be a better person. The accumulation of a million thoughtful acts is why I love my mother. Happy Mother’s Day Mom, you are always a beacon in my life.

Weekend? Huh? It flew by. We spent most of this weekend with our friends BBB and Buck and their family. Buck entered Tough Mudder with a few other friends and we thought it would be interesting to watch. It sure was. Tough Mudder is a race that is meant to break you down. There are more than 20 obstacles and 25k of mud and hills to trek through. There was so much mud and mud soup. To make this run even worse, the morning started off single digit cold. Nothing like pushing yourself to extremes AND having your body shivering to keep warm. There were certainly people you did not finish the event and others who skipped various obstacles. Witnessing people overcoming fear was awesome to watch. I recall one mudder standing at the top of 20ft platform overlooking a pool of water. She was freaking out and on the verge of tears. But with her team mates help she overcame her fear and jumped. The human element of cooperation and team was incredible to see. The will of the human spirit to push and overcome was evident everywhere. The team we watched did great! All of them finished the event, most exhausted with some minor injuries but pumped and immediately saying how much fun it was and that they would do it again next year in a heartbeat.

It was a pretty well run event. The only down side was the long bus ride to and from the event. Otherwise it was great. The staff and volunteers were spot on, helping and pushing the mudders to succeed. I’m toying with the idea of doing it next year if Buck and Jessica (who I know from the team) decide to do it again. It was messy and exhausting but what a trip it would be to finish it. We shall see.

Saturday, post event, Buck and family stayed the night at our place. We settled on Thai for dinner which we made short work of. After dinner the men watched hockey and slowly fell asleep. Sunday got going early with Buck’s kids getting up with the sun. Bdot made a yummy breakfast then we all went to Ikea. Amazingly we didn’t buy anything. I’m not sure that means. Buck however did buy some stuff… while he was checking out Bdot and I went over to Golftown. Yes! After two decades of using the same junior set of golf clubs, I’m happy to have a spiffy new set of Adams clubs!. I’ve been saving gift cards from Christmas and birthdays for two years to get the clubs. A special thank you to my parents and bdot, while it may not improve my golfing, I’m hoping it will make golfing more enjoyable. After more shopping we were all getting pretty hungry. Bdot knows the area of Vaughan we were in quite well, as it is close to her office so she suggested Kyoto. Zounds. We ordered a disturbing amount of food. I was certain we would be charged extra for ordering dishes we couldn’t finish. But wow…. we polished off nearly everything, and it was delicious. We all kept eating and eating. I felt like I swallowed a bowling ball for the rest of the evening. Ugh….

At this point we went our separate ways. The typically bizarre Ontario weather continued… it hailed, rained then was sunny. *eyeroll* We made a stop to look at a hanging light bdot found for the foyer but a discounted chair caught our eye. To complete the ‘fireplace room’ we planned on getting two comfortable armchairs but we haven’t found what we were looking for. The plan was originally was to get leather armchairs but they would be really expensive. Well… the chair we came across was the right colour, comfortable, cheap and aesthetically what we were looking for. The store has two unopened at the warehouse so after some deliberation… we bought them! We are still thinking about the light. Bdot meets with a designer tomorrow, hopefully she can provide some badly needed design clarity for our upcoming reno. The rest of the evening was groceries and hockey. I can’t believe the Leafs forced a game seven. I’m not sure what will happen tonight in Boston. It will be an incredible game for sure. Who will be the hero?

The Front Garden 2013
Aww our poor yard. The front is tolerable. The backyard however is a disaster. We are finally starting to see the rewards of planting bulbs year after year. The ‘front’ garden actually looks pretty good. It needs to fill in a bit but it is full of colour. It looks like bdot did a good job with her numerous plantings! We are hoping there will be some coin left over after the kitchen/inside reno to at least make the backyard tolerable. Every time we talk about it we end up with less and less lawn. We’ll see… it appears we have pretty lofty ambitions for both inside and outside.

Bdot was away at a girl’s weekend the past few days. I have few details to report other than she had a good time and it was somewhat lower key than it has been in the past. So that left me to fend for myself this weekend. I watched a bunch of hockey, gamed and killed myself at nivek’s pulling out a tree. Nivek told me about a Japanese Maple he wanted to get rid of some time ago. I said if I could fit it in my car I’d take it. It became painfully clear that us geeks are spatially challenged. After 4.5 agonizing hours of digging out this ‘small tree’ it was clear it was waaaay too big to fit in the car. It wasn’t going anywhere without a truck. Ho-hum. The point was to try and save this beautiful tree. So Nivek put the tree on kijiji ‘as-is’ – come and get it. I was happy to hear someone picked it up within two hours! Never underestimate the extent of roots a ‘small tree’ can have. Oh, did I mention a lot of the tree roots were in clay? Joy.

The reno is moving forward. We may have resolved the epic fridge dilemma. The more we read about Samsung fridges the less desirable they became. Consumer Reports rated the fridge we originally picked out at under 50 so… for me that was the final straw. We needed to find a new option. In a brilliant stroke of research, bdot has found two LG fridges, both rating in the 70s… and they are *gasp* cheaper!, so we may have found a winner. That was the big appliance battle. Now about that tile… *cringe*

The NHL playoffs have been quite entertaining so far. With my beloved Sabres out (is that an echo?) I’m left watching the Leafs, Sens and Caps series. The Habs/Sens series has been by far the most interesting to watch. If there wasn’t a big rivalry between Ottawa and Montreal before this series, I can guarantee there will be now. I’m surprised the Leafs were able to win a game in Boston. I did say Boston in 5. Tonight we could find out if I’m right…